Great Barrier Reef

We’ve done and seen a lot these past few weeks, but always lurking in the background was the one big thing we came all the way for – the Great Barrier Reef. Today is the day, and we’re up bright and early to get a bite of breakfast and make our way to the marina. There are a bunch of different boats doing all kinds of tours, so after much thought, we have settled on one that will take us to the outer reef (Agincourt Reef to be exact) for the day. Being further from Port Douglas, our hope is there will be fewer people, and supposedly, there are less Box Jellyfish to deal with as you move away from shore.

Joey has decided he’s just not comfortable diving yet, so while that is an option on our boat, we’ll be sticking to snorkeling. I was a bit concerned about this as we were booking a tour (we came all this way, shouldn’t we be diving?), but most of the people we ask say the two aren’t much different here. The water is fairly shallow where we’ll be, making it quite easy to free dive from the surface and get close ups of the things you want to see.

Because it is jellyfish season (and because Box Jellyfish can kill you), we all have to suit up in a nice lycra body suit. It’s a bit hectic, but Joey manages to catch a photo of us before we dive in.

Over the course of the day we cover a total of three sites. They are all pretty incredible and the pictures won’t possibly do them justice, but it’s the best we can do.

Between sites, we are able to catch a little sun and listen to the guide talk about the area and the different kinds of fish and coral that we have been seeing.

We also enjoy a pretty tasty lunch (as tour lunches go), which surprisingly, none of the people yack back up on what is a fairly rough ride back to port.

Although we’ve already checked out of the hotel, we’ve borrowed their pool towels for the day, so take a brief detour back to drop them off before starting our drive to Cairns. While there, we feel obligated to at least spend a few minutes on Four Mile Beach, and Joey takes the opportunity to put his feet in the pool.

There isn’t much of a beach on Cairns, but we have a great view and are just a short walk from the restaurants and shops. We’ve been keeping an eye out for a place that serves kangaroo burgers, but they’re harder to find that we imagined and tonight we have to settle for plain old beef (although they were amazing burgers). We also come across a stand selling waffles stuffed with fruit and whipped cream, which is impossible to pass up given that we have the one and only Joey Waffles in our party.

It has a been a once in a lifetime day and it doesn’t take much for us to fall into bed once we get back to the room.